“This situation is just... ridiculous,” Tetsu said, lowering into a lazy fighting stance.

“An intruder without a map. Despicable.”

“Talk about infiltration and killing one more time.” Tetsu’s face turned grim. “And I will kill you.”

“Insolence.”

Krovath wanted to move, but his left leg refused his command. The momentum broke, and by releasing the Rune on the left leg at the right moment, Krovath tripped.

Having already witnessed such tactics, Krovath activates the defensive arrays, and the jacket swells like an airbag, cushioning his fall. Krovath smiles and looks ahead, ready to throw a taunt at his opponent, but his smile fades as Tetsu has already moved from the previous position and now sits on top of him, the axe head leaning against his neck.

“Pull the door close, open it, and do not move until I say so,” Tetsu leans the axe closer. “That is if you value your head.” He checks for any apparatus around Krovath’s neck, not wanting to be left fighting with a head on spider legs. “If the jacket, or any part of your body, so much as jerks,” the sharp edge of the axe slices through the barrier, drawing a bead of blood before it even reaches his neck.

“Oops!” Tetsu tilts the blade back. “How sharp are these darn axes?” The blade absorbs the blood and grows sharper, a thin red tint adding to the charcoal-black blade’s edge. “Not sharp enough! Noted.”

Krovath moves the tiles around. Reality breaks into various screens, the room breaking and reforming as the exit moves closer. A section of the wall opened into a familiar hallway, and Tetsu stood up, the axe blade extending, to keep the threat alive. Tetsu marks the hallway and uses Terrafarer to step straight into the hallway.

“You fool,” Krovath smirked. “Stay forever—”

*!Crack!*

Tetsu slams the axe into the wall. Instead of running, he turns into a mad bull, destroying every wall in the vicinity.

Krovath morphs the room again, summoning Tetsu back into the control room. “How did you figure it out so fast?”

“Because the door kept moving.”

Krovath morphed the room into two sections, one where he stayed and the other bent in an impossible loop to trap Tetsu.

“Did you stop and consider if I moved the room away from you?” Krovath challenged.

Tetsu’s glare softened, realization dawning upon him. “Haha-ha-ah never thought of it in that context.”

“How dunce are you?” Krovath taunted.

“Says the guy who keeps pushing me to kill him.”

“Don’t you worry... This will all be over before you understand what happened.”

“Why? Planning to kill yourself because I didn’t comply?”

“What? No! Die...!” Krovath took a massive breath, breathing in the entire room’s oxygen. His body swelled up like a balloon.

“You suicidal maniac. If you want to die, then die. Why do you want me to join you?”

“No! Yo... u Dun... ce,” Krovath spoke between intakes, losing air with every word. “D...i.e.” He bellowed, his voice bouncing off the walls and magnifying.

The closed box somehow trapped the noise within it, the voice amplifying and turning into a tangible attack, burrowing into Tetsu’s very being. Tetsu curled up into a ball to reduce the effect, yet the voice hammered at him from all directions. Unlucky for Krovath, Tetsu had other means to move and attack.

The all-seeing eye of providence saw the fancy earplugs covering the Krantz’s ears. Tetsu’s greed pushed him to take action. He wanted them intact, so he took longer to prepare, enduring the assault.

The sound pinned him down for good, but runes required no physical movement, and he tortured his mental faculties more than what a lonely Krantz could ever inflict.

“Ignore the pain,” Tetsu told himself and focused.

For a split second, he separated the physical pain from hampering the mental faculties, cutting off one basic power from the other. A Rune tugged on the pouch at his waist, spilling a few metal shards he collected from the Alloyhide. The first batch soared straight at Krovath, while the rest circled the room.

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Krovath backpedaled to dodge the first batch and stepped right into the second batch. The shards circling the room were softer and aimed to knock off the earphones.

Krovath fell to the ground, writhing in pain, while Runes carried and slammed Tetsu out of the control room, the open space drowning out the noise.

“No way to stop or control your own skill? Such a noob,” Tetsu frowned at Krovath.

The earphones, potions, and loose gadgets flew away from Krovath and went straight into Tetsu’s pouch. He chugged down a top-tier mana, health, and stamina potion he snatched from Krovath before entering the pale white room, the color dimming and projecting his victory.

The screens were off, and without the magical effects of the controller screens, the room appeared worn out, worse than a normal hallway.

“Sad can’t begin to describe this state,” Tetsu peered around the room. His gaze landed on a broken teapot.

While Krovath recovered, Tetsu got to hacking and storing three-quarters of the screen tiles. As Krovath required more time, Tetsu wandered around and found an adjacent room.

“Under the crime of being a douche and breaking the laws of hospitality, I will claim this as compensation,” Tetsu kept showing Krovath various items before storing them in a pouch. “This and that. This too. Oh, this, this...”

Tetsu wanted to leave some behind, but before he knew it, the room, Krovath’s quarters, was empty. “You have an entire fortress to sleep in. You don’t mind if I take this massive bed, do you?” Tetsu shouted from the bedroom, the bed already inside the pouch. “Crap, this is full. I need a different pouch for toilet supplies. Perhaps it’s for the best.”

———<>|*|<>———

“What is happening?” Lala gaped at the castle. The previously complicated arrays were now being used crudely.

Tarah and several technicians did their best, yet the undead army bypassed their formations. They even sacrificed the castle’s movements, merged the two broken halves, and concentrated on the various arrays. When that did not work, they focused on a single array and tried to maintain their defenses. After failing at that endeavor, the generals, technicians, and Tarah managed one array, yet their lack of control was evident.

The undead forces capitalized on the Krantz’s split focus and swarmed the castle, once again gaining the upper hand in the battle.

In ten minutes, Krovath lost control and Tarah took over; the flow of the battle turned in the undead’s favor. Krovath resumed half of the control before the undead breached the castle, but Tarah knew she had to keep assisting with the arrays, as her king wasn’t in full fighting capacity yet.

“What happened down there?” Tarah drained another mana potion and split the menial array controls for the technicians to handle.

Krovath never gave her control for fun, let alone between a crisis. Not because he didn’t trust her. No, he trusted her more than himself. He never gave anyone control because they couldn’t control such a complex structure.

“Are you alright, sire?” Tarah sent another message, and this time, Krovath responded.

“Give me a second. I can handle things down here. You do not move or send anyone else,” Krovath ordered.

“Let me send–”

“—Useless,” Krovath coughed. The connection flickered on and off alongside the cough. “None of us can face this maniac. What—” His voice got cut off.

“Are you deaf? Oh, wait! You are,” Tetsu chuckled and poured some potion down Krovath’s ear.

“Why are you healing me?”

“For the last time. I don’t give a rat’s ass about you or anything you care about. Now strip.”

“Huh!” Krovath tilted his head, pointing his left ear at Tetsu.

“S..T..R..I... P,” Tetsu stressed each word.

Krovath gave the strange humans all his belongings, only hesitating while removing the golden bracelets embedded with various color rubies.

“That controls the room, right?”

“Yes! How can you possibly—”

“—The expression on your face. It’s as if you are giving away your baby. Wait! Are you male or female?”

“Male!” Krovath exclaimed, hiding his privates. “So... you won’t kill me?”

“I hate the thought of it, so yeah.”

“Can I ask you a few questions?” Krovath settled down on his knees, facing away from Tetsu.

“Oh-kay! Make it quick and drop me outside after you are done.”

Krovath nodded enthusiastically and fired off questions. “Are you with the undead?”

“Nope.”

“Then—”

“Beats me. That means I don’t know.”

“You humans have a weird language.”

“Agreed. Next.”

“Are you really going to leave me alive?”

“Looks like you won’t be satisfied until I kill you,” Tetsu stretched, startling Krovath. “Find someone else for your weird fantasies. I am not the guy for the job.” He paused in thought. “Or any stuff.” He shuddered.

“I left a healing potion inside that room, will leave one mana potion outside this room, and stamina after a certain distance. I got a bit carried away, but the screens left should be enough. I hope.” Tetsu showed Krovath two fingers he was dying to show, drawing the expected confused gaze. “Fuck you!” He explained and headed to the exit.

“Wait.” Krovath shot to his feet. “My last attack is my strongest. How did you counter it with such ease?”

Tetsu shrugged and pointed at his ears.

Krovath stepped closer cautiously, and the sight pulled the floor away from beneath him. Tiny dried drops of blood filled Tetsu’s ear canal, making any sound-based attacks useless. “When?”

“Since I entered the room.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you remember yelling at me? I assumed you could do worse, so I prepared for the worst-case scenario.”

“What if—”

“—You win some, you lose some.” Tetsu cut him off. “If you made a bad move, it’s better to step back and assess, rather than let one stupid move dictate your future. According to Kile at least. And the dude is never wrong, you know.” He points at Krovath. “Case and point.”

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